Pleasure Craft

Five people were rescued from a sinking 50-foot boat after it struck a buoy and began to take on water in Baltimore Harbor Friday night, officials said Saturday. No one was injured in the incident near Fort McHenry, which was reported in a 911 call about 7 p.m. Friday, said Petty Officer First Class Nathan Henise, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard in Baltimore. A Baltimore Fire Department boat first responded to the scene and rescued the five unidentified people on the sinking vessel, said Henise.

For atmosphere alone, the new waterfront restaurant Barcocina is worth a visit. But you can't eat atmosphere. And the great news is that the food at Barcocina - pronounced bar-co-SEEN-ah, the name is a portmanteau word combining "bar" and "cocina," Spanish for "kitchen" - is excellent. The chef is Marc Dixon, who won praise for his work at Bistro Blanc in Glenelg, and he has fantastic ideas about how to make casual dining inventive, fun and memorable. The concept is tricky.

A search for a 45-year-old man and three children on a 28-foot pleasure craft has been suspended pending further investigation, said a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman. "The fact that we searched for eight hours and nobody found anything — nothing found at the marina, no missing people reported," the search has been suspended, said spokesman Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandyn Hill. The search began when the Coast Guard received a distress call at 2:48 a.m. Saturday, when a man reported that he was on a boat named "Susie Q" and three children were on board.

Five people were rescued from a sinking 50-foot boat after it struck a buoy and began to take on water in Baltimore Harbor Friday night, officials said Saturday. No one was injured in the incident near Fort McHenry, which was reported in a 911 call about 7 p.m. Friday, said Petty Officer First Class Nathan Henise, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard in Baltimore. A Baltimore Fire Department boat first responded to the scene and rescued the five unidentified people on the sinking vessel, said Henise.

For atmosphere alone, the new waterfront restaurant Barcocina is worth a visit. But you can't eat atmosphere. And the great news is that the food at Barcocina - pronounced bar-co-SEEN-ah, the name is a portmanteau word combining "bar" and "cocina," Spanish for "kitchen" - is excellent. The chef is Marc Dixon, who won praise for his work at Bistro Blanc in Glenelg, and he has fantastic ideas about how to make casual dining inventive, fun and memorable. The concept is tricky.

A $3 million, state-of-the-art pleasure boat storage facility is being built in a marina on Norman Creek in eastern Baltimore County in preparation for a scheduled opening in May. The three-level "boatel" will occupy more than an acre at Sunset Harbor Marina and will have the capacity to store craft up to 40 feet long, said marina co-owner John Polek, who is also president of the Baltimore County Marine Trades Association. Polek said the facility is the first of its kind in Baltimore County.

The Chrysler family owned one. The DuPonts owned several. And a storied 1925 pleasure yacht named the USS Sequoia served eight U.S. presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter.Legendary for their elegant designs and excellent craftsmanship sealed with an ornate gold insignia on their bows, the mahogany yachts custom-built in Eastport's Trumpy boatyard have long represented a bygone era of perfection, wealth and living the high life. They were the venues of lavish summer parties with free-flowing champagne and caviar.

The Coast Guard was trying to determine why an unmanned 40-foot pleasure craft sank at a marina near the Inner Harbor early yesterday. The Miss Complextion was discovered underwater at the Anchorage Marina on Boston Street at about 5:30 a.m., said Petty Officer Steven Rogers of the Coast Guard Activities Office in Baltimore. A salvage company managed to raise the wooden vessel by 8:40 p.m. and anchor it at the marina. The boat spilled about 10 gallons of fuel into the harbor, leaving a light sheen that evaporated in the morning sun, Rogers said.

One person remains missing after a boat capsized just north of the Conowingo Dam in the Susquehanna River in Cecil County on Saturday. The pleasure craft with four people aboard was reported missing at 7:40 p.m. Three were found Saturday night and taken to an area hospital, said Dave Williams, spokesman with the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association. The search will resume early Sunday for the fourth missing boater, Williams said. The missing person was reportedly not wearing a life jacket.

The Inner Harbor reverberated with ka-booms during a July 4th fireworks show last night that drew thousands of spectators.Some spectators sat on the grassy slope of Federal Hill park and others densely crowded the walkways around Harborplace for the 30-minute show.The explosions of red, white, blue and gold were shot into the air from a barge anchored just to the east of the Inner Harbor.Police estimated the crowd at around 200,000. It took more than an hour for spectators to leave Harborplace after the fireworks ended.

A search for a 45-year-old man and three children on a 28-foot pleasure craft has been suspended pending further investigation, said a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman. "The fact that we searched for eight hours and nobody found anything — nothing found at the marina, no missing people reported," the search has been suspended, said spokesman Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandyn Hill. The search began when the Coast Guard received a distress call at 2:48 a.m. Saturday, when a man reported that he was on a boat named "Susie Q" and three children were on board.

A $3 million, state-of-the-art pleasure boat storage facility is being built in a marina on Norman Creek in eastern Baltimore County in preparation for a scheduled opening in May. The three-level "boatel" will occupy more than an acre at Sunset Harbor Marina and will have the capacity to store craft up to 40 feet long, said marina co-owner John Polek, who is also president of the Baltimore County Marine Trades Association. Polek said the facility is the first of its kind in Baltimore County.

The Chrysler family owned one. The DuPonts owned several. And a storied 1925 pleasure yacht named the USS Sequoia served eight U.S. presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter.Legendary for their elegant designs and excellent craftsmanship sealed with an ornate gold insignia on their bows, the mahogany yachts custom-built in Eastport's Trumpy boatyard have long represented a bygone era of perfection, wealth and living the high life. They were the venues of lavish summer parties with free-flowing champagne and caviar.

A 57,000-pound forklift lost its brakes and tumbled into Bodkin Creek in Pasadena yesterday, crushing the bow of a pleasure craft it was supposed to lift out of the water.No one was hurt in the incident, which occurred at Pleasure Cove marina -- a 140-slip facility at the foot of Oak Road -- about 1 p.m.Coast Guard Petty Officer Joseph Randazzo said the forklift fell about 5 feet onto the cabin cruiser. Two large cranes were being prepared yesterday to transport the forklift and boat out of about 4 feet of water to safer ground.

The Inner Harbor reverberated with ka-booms during a July 4th fireworks show last night that drew thousands of spectators.Some spectators sat on the grassy slope of Federal Hill park and others densely crowded the walkways around Harborplace for the 30-minute show.The explosions of red, white, blue and gold were shot into the air from a barge anchored just to the east of the Inner Harbor.Police estimated the crowd at around 200,000. It took more than an hour for spectators to leave Harborplace after the fireworks ended.